trouble with editing photos on Mac after saving

MacBook Pro 2021, Ventura 13.6.7

Have had trouble with editing photos that have been previously edited; when I open the edit window with the photo with a previous text box, for example, my cursor turns into a little "pen nib" icon which will draw all over the photo; cannot select previous text box to edit. One day it worked like it should---I was able to open a photo with a previous text box, select box, and edit it. What am I missing here? Thanks so much in advance.